French

IN ITS FORTY YEARS, Théâtre français de Toronto has become one of the most important French theatre companies in Canada. With 230 productions, today TfT reaches more than 11,500 people in a regular season and has 1,000 subscribers. It presents five productions for general audiences, two for teenaged audiences and, this year, one production for children. TfT has been performing at the Berkeley Street Theatre since 1990. Its audience is made up of francophones and francophiles and, in the last three years, of anglophones who come to the surtitled performances.

TfT’s repertoire ranges from new Canadian and international works to the classics and creations.

TfT was founded in 1967 and named Théâtre du P’tit Bonheur after its first production. By 1970, under its first Artistic Director, John Van Burek, it established a continuing relationship with playwright Michel Tremblay. To mark its 20th anniversary, the company changed its name to Théâtre français de Toronto.

Its 1992-1993 season, under the artistic direction of Diana Leblanc, was a resounding success, with eight Dora Mavor Moore nominations.

For its 30th anniversary season TfT passed the torch to Guy Mignault. Since then, TfT has reinstated its programming for children and created a playwright-in-residence program. Guy Mignault’s first musical creation, C’était un p’tit Bonheur won a Dora award in 1998.

In the fall of 2004, TfT launched a special youth outreach program with productions specifically geared to teenaged audiences. Meanwhile, its production for young audiences, Grimm Grimm, toured throughout the province for the third year in a row and was seen by more than 16,500 school children.

In 2005, TfT won a Dora Award for Outstanding Touring Production for Est-ce qu’on ne pourrait pas s’aimer un peu? by Théâtre Loyal du Trac from Brussels. That same year, Portrait chinois d’une imposteure toured in Ottawa and Sudbury. This year, TfT presents a new work commissioned for its 40th anniversary, Le Don Quichotte de Toronto / Toronto’s Don Quixote, by its second playwright-in-residence, Glen Charles Landry.

Launched in April 2005, surtitled performances are now a major attraction and allow francophones to invite friends and family who do not speak French, as it gives all theatre lovers an opportunity to discover French language theatre. In April 2006, L’Avare broke ticket sale records for the last ten years and two performances had to be added. The success of this production, directed by Jean-Stéphane Roy, was topped off by the Masque Award for Best Franco-Canadian Production 2006.

This year again, TfT will encourage creativity and artistic expression in the schools of the GTA with Les Zurbains, produced by Théâtre Le Clou in Montréal from stories written by high school students in Toronto, Montréal and Québec City. The writing contest allows hundreds of students to discover their talent in their own language. Also, TfT has reinstated its children programming last year and is proud to present Vox Theatre’s production of Oz for children from 5 to 12, in November 2008 at the Berkeley Street Theatre.